Dianna Siveny, accused in plot to beat up Lara Plamann, who was later murdered, faces charges for bail jumping

Police say woman tied to beating plot violates bail

Jun. 30, 2010 7:47 AM

Written by

Jim Collar

Post-Crescent staff writer

APPLETON — A former Greenville resident charged with hiring a man to beat her domestic partner the year before she was shot to death has been charged with violating conditions of her jail release.

Dianna M. Siveny, 51, now of Shoreview, Minn., was charged Tuesday in Outagamie County Court with eight counts of felony bail jumping. Siveny had been in a relationship with Lara Plamann who was found dead of a gunshot in a shed at the home they shared on Oct. 17, 2007.

Charges filed in April accused Siveny of a hiring a man in the spring of 2006 to "rearrange (Plamann's) face" and beat her badly enough "that she would go to the hospital."

No charges have been filed in Plamann's shooting death. Siveny was released from jail on a $10,000 cash bond after her first court appearance in April with conditions that included no contact with her imprisoned 31-year-old daughter. Police say the two have had contact.

Her daughter, Kandi M. Siveny, also was charged on Tuesday in Outagamie County Court for her role in hiring the man to beat Plamann and for damaging a car owned by one of Plamann's friends.

Outagamie County Dist. Atty. Carrie Schneider said sheriff's officials were in Minnesota on Tuesday to take Dianna Siveny into custody. Information wasn't immediately available on whether an arrest was made.

Kandi Siveny will remain in Minnesota due to her incarceration in the Shakopee Women's Prison.

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"She might not come back until serving the balance of her sentence," Schneider said.

The criminal complaint filed Tuesday against Dianna Siveny came after an Outagamie County investigator reviewed phone calls from May and June placed by Kandi Siveny from the prison, where she is serving a four-year prison sentence on drug convictions. Several calls went to the phone of Margaret Baldwin, who lives with Dianna Siveny, and to a cell phone identified as Dianna Siveny's.

Baldwin told sheriff's deputies she and Dianna would put calls from Kandi on speakerphone, and that Dianna would provide questions for Baldwin to ask Kandi. Dianna's voice is heard in the background on several calls, and Dianna talked directly to her daughter during a phone call placed on June 3, the complaint says.

Outagamie County sheriff's Capt. Michael Jobe declined comment on Tuesday on the status of the investigation into Plamann's death.

Charges filed against Kandi Siveny on Tuesday stem in part from interviews with Minnesota resident Nathan Foster that began in 2008 as authorities investigated Plamann's death. They mirror the accusations filed against her mother in April.

Schneider said there were strategic reasons for not charging the mother and daughter simultaneously. Contact between the Sivenys played a role in her decision to file the charges against Kandi Siveny on Tuesday, she said.

Foster told an investigator that the Sivenys paid him $300 to beat Plamann in the spring of 2006, although he never followed through. He said Dianna Siveny instructed him to use a bat and break bones.

The Sivenys drove him to Appleton in the spring of 2006, he told police. Foster waited for Plamann at the home where the Sivenys said he would find her, but did not go through with the assault because he saw a woman enter the home who didn't match Plamann's description.

A woman matching Plamann's description arrived later, but Foster was concerned about going forward with the assault with the other woman there, the complaint says.

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Both of the Sivenys were upset with him for failing to go through with the beating as he said he would, he told officers.

Foster was able to identify landmarks when brought back to Appleton by an investigator.

The criminal damage to property charge filed Tuesday against Kandi Siveny stems from vandalism done to a car owned by a friend of Plamann in August 2007.

Minnesota resident Rosie Campbell told investigators that she came to Appleton with Kandi Siveny to damage the car at the request of Dianna Siveny, who was out of town with Plamann and the car's owner.

Campbell said she and Kandi Siveny slashed the car's tires, spray painted the exterior and broke a window. They also poured bleach and a sticky substance inside the car, the complaint says.

Campbell told police she and Kandi Siveny stayed in a motel paid for with money Dianna Siveny had left buried on her property for them. Investigators found hotel records confirming Kandi Siveny booked a room in the Fox Cities during the time the car was vandalized.

Neither Foster nor Campbell has been charged.

Each of the bail jumping counts against Dianna Siveny carries a maximum six years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

Kandi Siveny faces a maximum 3½ years in prison and a $10,000 fine for solicitation of substantial battery. She faces nine months in jail and a $10,000 fine if convicted of criminal damage to property.